Watching Chinese TV Programming in the States

[homerjay1011]

Hi,

 

My fiancée and I are getting close to our move to the states and she starting thinking about being able to watch/stream Chinese TV while we’re in the states. From what I gather, all the websites are geolocked. Does anyone have any experience with this? Are there any good vpns with servers in China or things of that nature?

 

Thanks!!

[Randy W]

An OLD thread about that - PPTV

 

Dish network also used to have a Chinese package, as have some other cable providers.

[True Blue]

My wife bought a device from Taiwan called tv pad. It worked for about 18 months until the owner was sued and shut down.

 

She now streams things from the Internet using her iPad and Chinese content sites. Can't get a lot of channels like Many of the CCTV but she can get enough.

 

I think sites that are open for streaming in China can also be streamed to USA. There is a site where Chinese expats discuss US things (I forgot the name but someone reading will likely remember and post here) and it might have tips.

 

Bottom line is we don't have cable tv and wife is able to find a lot of stuff by going to Baidu and searching for content streaming sites. There are also separate devices like tv pad that come and go but I don't know of any that are very good. Perhaps others here can recommend one.

 

Finally, if you elect to pay for cable tv some providers have a very limited Chinese language package for add on. We are cord cutters since cable kept raising our rates and I figured out I could buy a couple indoor antennas, triple my internet speed, cut the cable and save $32,000 over the next 20 years. After reading that 37 of the top 40 shows are on broadcast TV and Not wanting to "pay for the equivalent an extra new car" we gladly cut the cable and really haven't missed anything. I get 28 stations using my indoor antenna (7HD) with some addional ones non HD stream available on the Internet if I would want them.

[Randy W]

Some more topics I found - http://candleforlove.com/forums/tags/forums/Chinese%2BTV/ - you simply need to figure out what works best for you

Edited June 10, 2018 by Randy W (see edit history)

[homerjay1011]

Awesome! It sounds like it won’t be too much of a problem using the internet to access everything. That’s certainly good news! The whole paying for cable again sounds rough, as I’ve long since cut that cord. And buying some box sounds finicky.

 

Thanks everyone!’

[eseum]

You can also use a ROKU player and stream to your TV. There is some Chinese content that can be accessed through it. Some you pay for and some free.

[dnoblett]

Several threads on this topic. http://candleforlove.com/forums/tags/forums/TV/

 

Looking at a streamer from italkBB http://www.italkbb.com/

[True Blue]

Several threads on this topic. http://candleforlove.com/forums/tags/forums/TV/

Looking at a streamer from italkBB http://www.italkbb.com/

I'm always looking at alternatives so i was intrigued about your note about the italkBB streamer and that got my attention. I just did a search and looked around a bit and I found this review stream on Yelp. Please read the reviews as there seem to be a lot of red flags written here about the company.

 

I saw some similar red flags before we bough tv pad and decided to go ahead anyway. It worked for awhile but we were constantly having days when we had no service and we're having to upload patches to the software weekly. The company was very hard to contact even during Taiwan business hours and getting service was painful. Then the company went out of business.

 

Not saying the same thing will happen with italkBB but there sure seem to be a lot of red flags within the reviews posted here that you should proceed with extreme caution. If you do decide to go through with it please post more about your experiences and if good then we might give it a try as well. You never know about reviews especially With Chinese businesses as many Chinese businesses seem to post bad reviews about their competitors to help their own businesses.

 

But in restaurants at least I generally find Yelp to be pretty good. Please have a look at this thread (not sure if the link will post if not search Yelp r view and italkBb) before you charge anything on your credit card.

 

https://www.yelp.com/biz/italkbb-mclean-2?start=60

 

Thank you.

[amberjack1234]

My wife bought a device from Taiwan called tv pad. It worked for about 18 months until the owner was sued and shut down.

 

She now streams things from the Internet using her iPad and Chinese content sites. Can't get a lot of channels like Many of the CCTV but she can get enough.

 

I think sites that are open for streaming in China can also be streamed to USA. There is a site where Chinese expats discuss US things (I forgot the name but someone reading will likely remember and post here) and it might have tips.

 

Bottom line is we don't have cable tv and wife is able to find a lot of stuff by going to Baidu and searching for content streaming sites. There are also separate devices like tv pad that come and go but I don't know of any that are very good. Perhaps others here can recommend one.

 

Finally, if you elect to pay for cable tv some providers have a very limited Chinese language package for add on. We are cord cutters since cable kept raising our rates and I figured out I could buy a couple indoor antennas, triple my internet speed, cut the cable and save $32,000 over the next 20 years. After reading that 37 of the top 40 shows are on broadcast TV and Not wanting to "pay for the equivalent an extra new car" we gladly cut the cable and really haven't missed anything. I get 28 stations using my indoor antenna (7HD) with some addional ones non HD stream available on the Internet if I would want them.

We paid the cable TV thing for 15 years until my mother passed away and then canceled them both except for the internet part and that is enough.

[dnoblett]

I'm always looking at alternatives so i was intrigued about your note about the italkBB streamer and that got my attention. I just did a search and looked around a bit and I found this review stream on Yelp. Please read the reviews as there seem to be a lot of red flags written here about the company.

 

I saw some similar red flags before we bough tv pad and decided to go ahead anyway. It worked for awhile but we were constantly having days when we had no service and we're having to upload patches to the software weekly. The company was very hard to contact even during Taiwan business hours and getting service was painful. Then the company went out of business.

 

Not saying the same thing will happen with italkBB but there sure seem to be a lot of red flags within the reviews posted here that you should proceed with extreme caution. If you do decide to go through with it please post more about your experiences and if good then we might give it a try as well. You never know about reviews especially With Chinese businesses as many Chinese businesses seem to post bad reviews about their competitors to help their own businesses.

 

But in restaurants at least I generally find Yelp to be pretty good. Please have a look at this thread (not sure if the link will post if not search Yelp r view and italkBb) before you charge anything on your credit card.

 

https://www.yelp.com/biz/italkbb-mclean-2?start=60

 

Thank you.

Good points, I probably would use my Privacy card account and create a restricted card for them that I can turn off if things get odd.

 

https://privacy.com/

[homerjay1011]

I was reading through posts that Randy and dnoblett linked to and one person was saying it was incredibly hard for them to cancel the subscription with italkbb having to go so far as contacting their credit card provider to stop payments to them. So I certainly would be hesitant!

 

I also saw someone posting about using transocs and n2ping to get a Chinese IP address and unlock region locked content. That’s likely the method we’ll be using.

[Randy W]

I was reading through posts that Randy and dnoblett linked to and one person was saying it was incredibly hard for them to cancel the subscription with italkbb having to go so far as contacting their credit card provider to stop payments to them. So I certainly would be hesitant!

 

I also saw someone posting about using transocs and n2ping to get a Chinese IP address and unlock region locked content. That’s likely the method we’ll be using.

 

 

It's always good to use a method that you can be comfortable with, B U T . . .

 

Your search - transocs and n2ping - did not match any documents.

 

 

Can you provide a link to that post?

 

Found it here (transocks, not transocs) - http://candleforlove.com/forums/topic/48721-vpn-location-in-mainland-china/?p=635677

[johnny206]

My wife got a "Ubox" from http://www.unblocktech.com/en/. No subscription, just one time cost for the box and you get live streaming of channels from China/TW/HK. Also thousands of movies including American ones as well. I think she paid about $200 USD from tabobao. My brother in law also has one and he told me there are Indonesian and Malaysian channels, too. Honestly, there are so many things available to watch, I'm talking about 10's of thousands that I haven't really explored. My wife mainly watches Korean soap operas though. I highly recommend you check it out.